○  energy and the national goals - a crisis of confidence  ○

and i like this one particularly from a black woman who happens to be the mayor of a small mississippi town: “the big shots are not the only ones who are important. remember, you can’t sell anything on wall street unless someone digs it up somewhere else first.”

this kind of summarized a lot of other statements: “mr. president, we are confronted with a moral and a spiritual crisis.”

several of our discussions were on energy, and i have a notebook full of comments and advice. i’ll read just a few.

“we can’t go on consuming forty percent more energy then we produce. when we import oil we are also importing inflation plus unemployment.”

“we’ve got to use what we have. the middle east has only five percent of the world’s energy, but the united states has twenty-four percent.”

and this is one of the most vivid statements: “our neck is stretched over the fence and opec has a knife.”

“there will be other cartels and other shortages. american wisdom and courage right now can set a path to follow in the future.”

this was a good one: “be bold, mr. president. we may make mistakes, but we are ready to experiment.”

and this one from a labor leader got to the heart of it: “the real issue is freedom. we must deal with the energy problem on a war footing.”

and the last that i’ll read: “when we enter the moral equivalent of war, mr. president, don’t issue us bb guns.”

these ten days confirmed my belief in the decency and the strength and the wisdom of the american people, but it also bore out some of my longstanding concerns about our nation’s underlying problems.

i know, of course, being presi

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